1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for locking and unlocking a vehicle door in which a cylinder lock including a rotor rotating in response to a key operation, and a door lock mechanism including a key operation input shaft capable of rotating to switch a locked state and an unlocked state of the door are provided at the door, and an inner cable of which one end is connected to the rotor to perform a twisting operation in response to the rotation of the rotor and of which other end is connected to the key operation input shaft is inserted into an outer casing of which opposite ends are connected to the cylinder lock and the door lock mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, the apparatus enhanced in antitheft effects by transmitting a rotational force of a rotor rotating in response to a key operation of a cylinder lock to a key operation input shaft of a door lock mechanism by using a torque cable comprising an outer casing and an inner cable inserted into the outer casing in order to switch a locked state and an unlocked state of the door lock mechanism in response to the key operation of the cylinder lock is known from, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,382.
In the above-described conventional apparatus, an end portion of the outer casing at the side of the door lock mechanism in the torque cable is inserted into a mounting hole provided in a casing of the door lock mechanism, and the end portion of the outer casing at the side of the door lock mechanism is mounted to the casing so that the casing is sandwiched between an engaging projection part which is provided to project at the outer casing with the projection amount capable of being inserted into the mounting hole and engages an inner surface of the casing, and a flange part provided at the outer casing to abut on an outer surface of the casing.
In the above-described conventional mounting structure, there is the possibility that when an external force in the direction to pull the torque cable is applied to the structure, or when impact of opening and closing the door is applied thereto, engagement of the engaging projection part with the casing is released, and the torque cable is disengaged from the key operation input shaft. As a result, connection of the torque cable to the key operation input shaft is deliberately released by pulling the torque cable, and it becomes impossible to transmit rotational power to achieve the unlocked state to the door lock mechanism from the cylinder lock by the impact action of opening and closing the door, thereby causing the possibility that the operation of the door lockmechanism cannot be achieved on the cylinder lock side.